Thursday, July 29, 2010

Ah readers, what to say? It's been what, almost two months since my last post and God has been rockin my world! This summer has been an adventure my friends, and to try and put it all into words would be in vain. All I can say is this: Get away, Find some space, and meet your Lord! It's amazing!

So I'm doing this "internship" with Colorado Community Church to get my feet a little wet in the youth ministry field. I put it in quotes, because it's not really an internship. Right now, it's Wednesdays from 1pm-9pm, and Saturday/Sunday youth services if I'm available. It's really low key, but boy howdy have I been learning! We're reading this book called "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. If you've never read it, DO. It's completely changed the way I view God and approach Him, it's re-vamped my love for Him and my understanding of His love for me. It's also helped me to look at how I spend myself during my vapor of an existence on earth.

Read Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 and you will find an impressive depiction of the One True God sitting on His throne! In Chan's book, he encourages you to read through these chapters and imagine approaching this throne. So imagine: You enter a room and the first thing you hear is the most glorious sound you've ever heard! Angels, often referred to as Seraphim in the Bible, are flying around, singing "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty!!!" Look down, and you see a floor that looks like a sea of glass, almost crystal clear and perfect. You look up and you see fire, smoke, lightning. Every once in a while, thunder breaks out, drowning out the voices and joining in the unfathomable splendor in this room. Looking further up you gaze upon a man in a white robe, which flows through the whole chamber. His skin is like jewels, shining and shimmering, and He is booming in stature. This, my friends, is the throne room of God!

What would you do as you enter this room? What do you say? The song, "I can only imagine" pops into my head, because honestly, I HAVE NO CLUE!! When faced with majesty in full I can do nothing but fall down and say "thank you!". This is the Lord of all creation, and every time we say "Dear Lord" we are approaching this very same God! Have you thought about that? Seriously? Take a minute, close your eyes and picture yourself in this room, on this crystal floor, among the angels singing and gazing into the face of mercy! When I first read this description of God I had to get on my own knees and fall face forward and worship. It was all my soul could think to do!

But it doesn't end there my friends. This amazing, powerful, unfathomable God thinks that we're the bees knees!!! This God has reached out and touched our very lips with His own hand and told us to not fear! This God died for us! Wow! When I think about what Jesus actually did, the price He paid, the time He suffered, I feel so fuzzy (as lame as that sounds). Again, take a moment and think about what Jesus did. Francis told a story of a beautiful image of the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22) Imagine if you will, Jesus; scared out of His mind, on hands and knees, sweating blood, with a tear soaked face. This terrified Man is crying out to His Father, begging for release from the burden of death on a cross, if it is in His will. He begs and pleads! "Daddy! Please if you can!! Please release me! Please!!" God, the Father, looks into His only Son's eyes, and lovingly declines, knowing that the salvation of YOU is worth it! This Father looked into the eyes of distress, sorrow, pleading, fear and anguish and said "Jacob is more important!" or "Jess is more important!" Or "Josh is more important!" WE ARE WORTH IT!! If we were worth it for the Son of Man to die the way He did, what do we fear of our own worth?? He has redeemed us friends! The God who sits on the same throne described before calls us worthy!

So the question I have been asking myself is this: Do I get it? Do I understand who this God is? Am I truly serving a God who can move mountains, save lives, and love us with an everlasting love? Or am I serving a mediocre God who hopefully helps me pass my classes? Our God is amazing, unsearchable and indescribable! He promises so many unbelievable things, and do I believe them to be true? He says that we can drink poison and not be harmed. (Mark 16:17-18) Can you believe that? Or is the first thing that crosses your mind, "no way, I'd die. The bottle and my doctor and my mom and my friends say so." What about Jesus? He says we can do it! He says we can move mountains! He says that we will rise from the dead! He says that we will heal those who are sick! We can do all of these things in His mighty name! Do we act on His promise? Or do we believe that God isn't really this powerful God to whom the angels sing every second of every day!?

Hereeeeeeeeeees Jake!

The beginning of my resume says that I'm a student at UNC Greeley but my Spirit says that I'm a follower of Christ. My life is about Him and I long to make Him known through my walk and talk. I'm still human though. I make mistakes and I hurt people- mostly because I'm hurt too. I, like everyone else, need love. I love hugs and I love to give hugs! Speak an encouraging word to me and I'll be happy for the whole day. If you want to keep me accountable, please do! Call me out on my mistakes and my sin so that I can be more and more like my Savior, Jesus!